Articles filed in Blogging
Surviving a corrupt WordPress database
Yesterday morning, the first thing I did after opening my browser was try logging into my WordPress dashboard. But neither the blog would load nor the login page. During such an event, I check my server status at status.asmallorange.com (name’s Sam). But seeing all three oranges lit, I immediately suspected that something was wrong with WorPress.
After allowing the page load for a few minutes, I was redirected to a page telling me that a database upgrade was required. But it concluded with fatal errors.
Next I logged into the Control Panel provided by my hosting provider and poked my nose there. I found a button that said Repair DB and since that was what I wanted, I pushed it.
The repair completed successfully and I was finally able to log into the WordPress Dashboard. The home page also loaded fine but it was later in the day when I discovered that the post pages were not rendering. The so called “Repair” made things worse !
Another season another design
It has been 5 months since I actually took the time make a new theme from scratch. I had a modified version of the previous theme up for a couple of weeks but that was intended to be temporary.
When I moved to this domain last October, I was a big fan of single column layouts. I was largely influenced by Modern Life - if it worked for him, it’d work for me - and it did. In single column layouts, content is truly king as there are no distractions from the sidebar when you are trying to focus on the reading.
But over time, a blog is bound to have widgets, badges and other shiny accessories and I stuffed them all in a big footer but only on the home-page. It was getting quite messy and unmanageable over time and one day I decided to leave it alone and concentrate on other parts of the blog.
In March, I took the blog offline to experiment with other blogging platforms out there. A month later I was back with WordPress and a new theme. But the only things that changed were the colours and that I had a sidebar on the home-page.
April Showers for Blogging
I have to admit it’s been a slow month for me when it comes to keeping in touch with my friends whether it be via e-mail, Facebook or blogging. But I know it’s not just me because several feeds in my RSS reader have slowed down as well. And there are several bloggers who have admitted only recently that they are feeling “depressed” about blogging.
I remember when I took an official three month hiatus from my website in 2006 at around this time of the year. Last year in March I excused myself by declaring I was busy studying for exams but I only wrote again late in May !
A new WordPress, a new design and a review of other blogging solutions
My blog was offline the last past couple of weeks because I was out exploring other platforms that are out there. It all started when two weeks back, WordPress was throwing back an “Error connecting to Database” message.
Thankfully, using WordPress’ export utility, I had backed up all my posts and comments only the night before. My first impulse, ofcourse was to clean-install WordPress again and start off with a new database. But then, I thought maybe this was a good time to try out the other options that are out there.
ManiaRavings is OpenID Enabled
That’s right ! Now when you want to leave a comment on this blog, you don’t have to separately fill out your name and your email and/or your home-page:
if you have an OpenID, simply type in your URL and post your comment !
Oh I’ve got the blues …
Yep ! I’ve the writer’s block. Again.
Books you will find at my local library - Part II
Dear Lord ! Have Mercy !
Books you will find in todays local library - Part I
As computer technology rapidly changes and as more people go online, so do libraries need to keep up with emerging trends and technology.
How to upgrade a WordPress installation
WordPress 2.3.3 is out and now, many of you are thinking of getting rid of the annoying “A new version of WordPress is available! Please update now”.
Unfortunately, many of us are intimidated by complicated instructions and are afraid to loose our valuable work ! But I hope to change this and simplify your understanding of what you really need to do.
In this article, I am going to show you two methods of upgrading WordPress: the first by using an FTP program, FileZilla; and the other without using a desktop program albeit depending on your web-hosting control panel provided by your hosting provider. continue reading →
Privacy of others is also our responsibility
I have a friend who blogs anonymously. As far as I can tell you, she is a Muslim and blogs about women’s issues, relationships, terrorism, poetry, non-fiction and other articles with hope to set the records straight within the Muslim community.
These seem to be very conventional issues but there elements out there, within the Muslim community and outside, that would want to stir up controversy about what she writes and hurt her reputation.
Switch to self-hosted blogging in 2008
What was I doing when the clock struck twelve ? I was writing a post. Yes I was blogging ! Oh the infamy you say …
But it’s different because my first article of 2008 is not on my blog. So head on to BlogBloke.com and discover why you should add one more resolution to your list this year.
When written responses go wrong
The blogosphere is a place to express opinion, exchange ideas and make new friends. But sometimes, thing don’t always work out that way !
Not everybody out there shares your opinion. Ideas clash, emotions flare, a war of words erupts and things turn quite ugly. I take criticism quite well - but there are times that when I respond to that critism, things go out of hand.
This post may sound like a confession but I’m very explicit about my opinions and where I stand. And I do change my opinion at times and that’s because I think I have a good reason to do so.
ManiaRavings joins the do-follow movement
I only recently discovered (thanks to BlogBloke), that there was actually a movement in the blogosphere “against” an anti-spam technique !
Google (as always the first), announced on its blog in the January of 2005, that it’s spiders will obey the rel=”nofollow” attribute in the link tag, to fight comment-spam.
How to make the most of Blogging Communities
The past week, I was quite active in blogger based communities like MyBlogLog, BUMPzee and blogcatalog.
In this entry I am going to tell you what I’ve been doing (more specifically on MyBlogLog) and how I’ve been trying to get people to read my blog. continue reading →
A WYSIWYG editor for ExpressionEngine
The default text area for publishing entries in ExpressionEngine is only partially WYSIWYG. It gets primitve when editing lenghty posts and working with images.
If you are not happy with any of the desktop solutions out there, an extension for ExpressionEngine exists, that will convert those text areas into rich text editors ! continue reading →
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Do I need a Blokester invitation??? 
